Age Appropriate Pedagogies Program

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School-based implementation During 2015, teachers and school leaders in 45 state schools participated in a professional support program underpinned by a structured research program. The program expanded in 2016 to include 115 state schools across the state and, in partnership with Independent Schools Queensland, a further eight Independent schools commenced the program in Term 2, 2016. The program designed by Griffith University is described as research-informed and research-led. The guiding principles described as the characteristics and approaches became the focus for teaching practice. To ensure the validity of the characteristics and approaches, participant schools are applying them to a current curriculum priority area of identified student need or school improvement focus. Each school has developed an individual local-level action plan to guide implementation of the characteristics and approaches. These schools are at the forefront of pedagogical change and curriculum leadership with evidence gathered through school-based research. Participating schools are demonstrating the link between research and practice and are providing the practical evidence of the impact of the characteristic of age-appropriate practices on children’s engagement and learning outcomes. Diagram 3: Dialectic Action Research Spiral (Mills 2011) outlines the action research approach used by schools. Each school gathered evidence of children’s engagement and learning throughout the period of the action research and shared their findings with the researchers. 8 Age Appropriate Pedagogies Program Progress Report 2016
Diagram 3: Dialectic Action Research Spiral (Mills 2011) Identify an area of focus Develop an action plan Collect data Analyse and interpret data The research team provides support to schools (individually in 2015 and via a cluster model in 2016) to strengthen their understanding of the characteristics and approaches, support the application of these in relevant curriculum contexts, and gather feedback from teachers about their pedagogical decision-making. The Palaszczuk Government wanted to hear from teachers and school leaders about their views on teaching and learning before the program commenced and at the end of the school year. The 2015 program findings are heavily informed by the views of practitioners and the leadership teams supporting them. Children were not specifically interviewed for this program. However, information gathered by the research team through the related 200 Children’s Voices project illuminates children’s perspectives on learning. The Age Appropriate Pedagogies Program highlights the importance of children being active participants in their learning. In recognition of this, the metropolitan region commissioned the 200 Children’s Voices project. The metropolitan region leadership team was inspired by the philosophical position adopted by the City Council of Mt Gambier, South Australia. The Council listened and responded to the many voices of children as part of its strategy to become a learning community. The 200 Children’s Voices project investigated the perspectives of children from 3-8 years of age about learning. The goal of the project was to inform educators, educational leaders, theorists, policy makers, curriculum designers, parents and the community about children’s learning preferences and inviting them to consider children’s perspectives when making decisions about teaching and learning in the early years. This project provides supplementary evidence to be considered along with the Age Appropriate Pedagogies Program. The insights of children and their learning preferences can be viewed in terms of the characteristics of age-appropriate practices and the approaches to teaching identified in the research literature as being effective in supporting young learners. Underpinning this was the premise that children have ideas and opinions on things that matter to them, and that children are competent and capable communicators who use a range of media (drawings, artwork, stories, other) to construct and share knowledge. The data collected and analysed indicates that children are seeking active, creative, collaborative and playful learning experiences and opportunities to exercise agency. What is evident is that there is the alignment between research evidence and children’s views, but not as strong an alignment between these aspects and the practices occurring in schools. Additionally, the data revealed that even very young children can demonstrate sophisticated understandings of the learning process, describe their relationships with teachers and others, and identify learning approaches that are appropriate for their ongoing development. Children are also able to recognise what motivates and engages them in learning. The 200 Children’s Voices project found kindergarten children appeared to have many opportunities to exercise agency in their learning while these opportunities were not as evident for school-aged children. Strong alignment is evident in relation to the purpose of the Age Appropriate Pedagogies Program in fostering more creative, active and agentic learning opportunities for children, and to enhance children’s perspectives of themselves as learners. Clearly, children indicated that they prefer to participate in learning experiences that are active, playful and experiential, where they have opportunities to seek the unknown, collaborate with their peers, challenge themselves, and take risks. Age Appropriate Pedagogies Program Progress Report 2016 9
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Age Appropriate Pedagogies Program

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